Renowned jurist Abdul Ghafoor Abdul Majid alias A.G. Noorani passed away today at his residence in Mumbai at the age of 93. I had the opportunity to work with him in the Ayodhya Consortium during (2014-2015). This process was initiated by our country’s former Cabinet Secretary and my dear friend Zafar Saifullah sahab. Apart from me, its members included Frontline magazine editor Mr. N. Ram, A.G. Noorani, Dr. B.D. Sharma, Acharya Jugalkishore and Hindustan Times editor. After two or three meetings of this forum, this process suddenly came to a halt after the demise of Zafar Saifullah sahab. But on this pretext, I got the opportunity to see and listen to A.G. Noorani sahab closely and to have a conversation with him. There were encyclopedias of sensitive topics ranging from the Indian subcontinent’s freedom struggle to communalism, Kashmir and secularism.
That is why in 2013 he has written a book titled The Kashmir Dispute – 1947-2012 in two volumes of more than twelve hundred pages based on various documents. And he has also written a separate large book on Article 370. Which he has submitted along with Annexe in 2023 in his petition challenging the decision to repeal 370 in the Supreme Court.
Similarly, he was also busy collecting documents against the November 2019 decision of the Supreme Court on the Ayodhya dispute! Born in Mumbai in 1930, Noorani, after completing his studies at the Government Law College of Mumbai, while practicing law in the High Court of Mumbai, he was also a lawyer against the arrest of Sheikh Abdullah and in the cases of former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh N. T. Rama Rao and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu J. Jayalalitha! Similarly, he was also known for giving very intelligent opinions on political issues! For example, after Mrs. Indira Gandhi declared emergency on 25 June 1975, A.G. Noorani was one of the few people in India who had shown courage to oppose the decision of Mrs. Indira Gandhi to declare emergency!
He was a lawyer by profession! And he had special expertise on the subjects of Kashmir, Article 370, RSS, freedom struggle and communalism! His columns with full references were published in newspapers and magazines like Front Line, Outlook, Dawn, Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Hindu!
And he has been the author of a 547-page book on RSS titled 370 and Kashmir, The RSS A Menace to India published by Left Word and a book with very rich information on 1857. For an activist like me who has spent half of his life working on the issue of communalism, the company of AG was very nurturing. During my thirty-five years of working on this subject, I have been intellectually guided by a few intellectuals in our country. AG Noorani has been number one among them. Whatever books he has written on these subjects and the collection of articles published from time to time in magazines like Frontline EPW, Outlook, have always proved to be helpful to me for any debate or writing an article. Our country has lost a great advocate of human rights today. I personally offer my humble tribute.
Dr Suresh Khairnar is former president of Rashtra Sewa Dal (RSD)
